In French law. Right justice, equity, law, the whole body of law; also a right.
This term exhibits the same ambiguity which is discoverable in the German equivalent, “recht” and the English word “right” On the one hand, these terms answer to the Roman “jus” and thus indicate law in the abstract, considered as the foundation of all rights, or the complex of underlying moral principles which impart the character of justice to all positive law, or give it an ethical content. Taken in this abstract sense, the terms may be adjectives, in which case they are equivalent to “just,” or nouns, in which cade they may be paraphrased by the expressions “Justice,” “morality,” or “equity.” On the other hand, they serve to point out a right; that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand, inherent in one person, and incident upon another. In the latter signification, droit (or recht or right) is the correlative of “duty” or “obligation.” In the former sense, it may be considered as opposed to wrong, injustice, or the absence of law. Droit has the further ambiguity that it is sometimes used to denote the existing body of law considered as one whole, or the sum total of a number of individual laws taken together. See Jus; RECHT; RIGHT. Droit d’acoession. That property which is acquired by making a new species out of the material of another. It is equivalent to the Roman “ceci catio.” Droit d’aubalne. A rule by which all the property of a deceased foreigner, whether movable or immovable, was confiscated to the use of the state, to the exclusion of his heirs, whether claiming ah intestato or under a will of the deceased. Finally abolished in 1819. Opel v. Shoup, 100 Iowa, 407, 69 N. W. 560, 37 L. R. A. 583 Droit d’exeention. The right of a stockbroker to sell the securities bought by him for account of a client, if the latter does not accept delivery thereof. The same expression is also applied to the sale by a stockbroker of securities deposited with him by his client in order to guaranty the payment of operations for which the latter has given instructions. Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 557. Droit do bris. A right formerly claimed by the lords of the coasts of certain parts of France, to shipwrecks, by which not only the property, but the persons of those who were cast away, were confiscated for the prince who was lord of the coast. Otherwise called “droit de oris sur le naufrage” This right prevailed chiefly in Bretagne, and was solemnly abrogated by Henry III. as duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Guienne, in a charter granted A. D. 1226, preserved among the rolls at Bordeaux. Droit de garde. In French feudal law. Right of ward. The guardianship of the estate and person of a noble vassal, to which the king, during his minority, was entitled. Steph. Lect 250. Droit de cite. In French feudal law. The duty incumbent on a roturier, holding lands within the royal domain, of supplying board and lodging to the king and to his suite while on a royal progress. Steph. Lect. 351. Droit de grene. In old French law. The right of selling various offices connected with the custody of judicial records or notarial acts. Steph. Lect. 354. A privilege of the French kings. Droit de malefese. In old French law. A charge payable to the crown by any one who, after having served his apprenticeship in any commercial guild or brotherhood, sought to become a master workman in it on his own account. Steph. Lect 354. Droit de prise. In French feudal law. The duty (incumbent on a roturier) of supplying to the ldng on credit during a certain penod, such articles of domestic consumption as might be required for the royal household. Steph. Lect 351. Droit de quaint. In French feudal law. A relief payable by a noble vassal to the king as his seigneur, on every change in the ownership of his fief. Steph. LectTSSO. Droit de snite. The right of a creditor to pursue the debtor’s property into the hands of third persons for the enforcement of his claim. Droits civils. This phrase in French law denotes private rights, the exercise of which is independent of the status (qualiti) of citizen. Foreigners enjoy them; and the extent of that enjoyment is determined by the principle of reciprocity. Conversely, foreigners may be sued on contracts made by them in France. Brown. Droit cerit. In French law. (The written law.) The Roman civil law, or Corpus Juris Civilis. Steph. Lect. 130. Droit International. International law Droit maritime. Maritime law. In old English law. Law; right; a writ of right. Co. Litt 1586. Antre droit. The right of another. Droit-close. An ancient writ, directed to the lord of ancient demesne on behalf of those of his tenants who held their lands add tenements by charter in fee simple, in fee-tail, for life, or in dower. Fitzh. Nat Brev. 23. Droit common. The common law. Litt. s 213; Co. litt 142a. Droit-droit. A double right; that is, the right of possession and the right of property. These two rights were, by the theory of our ancient law, distinct; and the above phrase was used to indicate the concurrence of both in one person, which concurrence was necessary to constitute a complete title to land. Mosley A Whitley. Droits of admiralty. Rights or perquisites of the admiralty. A term applied to goods found derelict at sea. Applied also to property captured in time of war of non-commissioned vessels of a belligerent nation. 1 Kent, Comm. 06.
Droit ne done pluis quo solt de mannde. The law gives not more than is demanded. 2 Inst 286.
Droit ne poet pas morier. Right cannot die. Jenk. Cent. 100, case 95.